The September Classic Ride Into Idaho and Montana is OFF.....for me at least.
On the eighth day of the 10th Annual BC Riding & Camping Tour, I crashed and wrecked my left shoulder. No....this was NOT a spectacular trip into the weeds at high speed but rather a low speed, low-side getoff in a parking lot !!!
My excuse is that I was really worn out mentally and physically after 7 long days of continuous riding and was not really in the best of condition for making sudden judgments required....even in a parking lot. The ride was just one day too long, it seems. I guess I'll just have to face up to the fact that I'm NOT 25 years old any more.
Otherwise from that, the first seven days were, for the most part, great riding with great weather and fabulous roads. Smokey Allan and myself had made it as far west as the west coast of Vancouver Island without incident. We even survived TWO rides through downtown Vancouver in rush hour traffic. Calgary's rush hour is a "walk in the park" compared to Vancouver's so we were glad to escape with no real scares (or scars) from either episode.
Allan got to ride 3 new (to him) roads this trip so he was pretty stoked. I let him lead on those particular roads so he could really experience the twisties HIS way. It was entertaining to follow him at a distance and watch him do his thing. Of course he complained that the semi-soggy suspension on his 1998 Bandit 1200 wasn't really up to handling his "manly weight"
(plus camping gear, etc) properly on such roads and that was why he wasn't going as fast as he could have gone. I, of course, called BS on that statement and suggested that a GOOD rider could overcome any kind "deficiency" in his equipment and still keep up the pace. We dodged all the LEOS and their ticket books, so THAT was good.
Allan took lotsa pics and vids and will be posting them on youtube as soon as he gets home. He'll be posting a link so you can see some of the roads we rode on.
I'll be putting up my still pics on Photobucket and will post a link....eventually.
So, I'm out of action, riding-wise at least, for quite awhile. My doc tells me that I've damaged my rotator cuff a little and surgery is required. The upside is that they will probably be able to fix up the damage from my PREVIOUS crash in 2007......and maybe I'll get rid of the lingering probs I've had with that shoulder.
BTW, my poor 2006 Bandit 1200 needs a load of new bits to put her back in shape....but nothing a wad of money can't cure. Nothing seems to be permanently bent/twisted so that's good. Well, we'll see.....
Wishing you a speedy, and also a full recovery 
